More than just a
weekly market, the tamu is a social gathering, an
occasion where people meet and trade foods, goods and the latest
news. Sabah would not be Sabah without the tamu, and visitors to the
“Land Below the Wind” should not miss out on a visit to a tamu.
Probably the most known and most visited tamu in Sabah is the
Kota Belud Sunday Tamu, widely advertised and promoted. Kota
Belud is only some 70 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu, and virtually
every tour agent in Sabah offers Sunday trips to see the colourful
display of local foods and handicraft there. At the Kota Belud Tamu
you can delve into the timeless atmosphere of the tamu and
experience the spirit of what makes it so unique. Watch elderly
Bajau women who offer their handicraft while smoking hand-rolled
‘kirai’ cigarettes and chatting with the busy Dusun women who sell
home grown tobacco, heavily chewing on Betel nuts. Stop at some of
the traditional healers and those who pretend to be, offering oils,
powders and herbs for nearly every aliment; admire the hand-crafted
parangs (machetes) of the Bajau; meet the seafaring Ubian and
Irranun displaying their array of seafood of every description,
fresh and dried; and be charmed by the Indian traders and their
display of batik sarongs and blouses, next to school uniforms, cheap
footwear and sun glasses, imitation watches and video games. In
between you’ll spot some Chinese entrepreneur selling everything
from cooking pots over washing powder to exercise books for
students. There is virtually nothing you could not get on the tamu
in Sabah: Indian herbs, plastic buckets, handcrafted traditional
baskets and mats, yeast and earth-ware jars for rice wine, clothes
hangers, cassettes with the latest international pop hits or Dusun
songs, beaded souvenirs and bamboo instruments, you name it! And of
course the people! Of every creed and race, the tamu in Sabah is a
gathering place for its people!

The Tamu Besar in Kota Belud is held yearly in addition to the
weekly Sunday market, an especially grand occasion and you will be
spoilt with cultural displays that are otherwise a rarity: Bajau
horsemen in traditional gear, their horses clad in equally
resplendent costumes, showing off their spirited skills; wedding
displays that depict the long and exuberantly colourful traditional
heritage of the Bajau community in Kota Belud; mesmerizing dances by
local troupes in resplendent traditional costumes and much more.

The tamu goes a long way back in history, long before there were
shopping malls and supermarkets. It seems that it has always been a
trading occasion for the locals, and a tamu near the sea provided an
exchange ground for produce from the interior, collected, hunted or
cultivated by the Kadazandusun people, with products from the sea,
produced by the seafaring Ubian, Irranun and other tribes. To this
day, the tamu ground remains a favourite shopping venue for most
Sabahans, an early morning visit to a tamu will prove this easily.
One of the charms of a local tamu is its timeless feel to it. Not
much has changed from the olden day tamu to the contemporary one
except that certain offers have changed. Now as then, you will find
fresh vegetables and local herbs, traditional medicine, tobacco and
parangs, steaming hot cakes and other local delicatessen (such as
sago-grubs botot and fresh water eels hindung…), dried
fish and fresh seafood, meat and fruit pickles, cooking pots and
farm tools. Salt, which was mostly produced by the Ubian in the
olden days and sold in rocks, has been replaced by fine grain salt
traded by Chinese, and the home spun, intricately woven cloths of
the Irranun have been replaced by cheaper, printed fabrics Indian
traders peddle. Dive into this colourful mix of people and
merchandise, take your time just as the locals do: squat down to
chat with the vendor of yeast for rice wine, and find out when and
where there is a next wedding; describe your aliments to a
herb-selling man behind his collection of roots, herbs, oils and
other medicine and bargain for a concoction full of an age-old
jungle wisdom; negotiate the prices for colourful sarongs and stop
to listen to the mesmerizing sounds of the gongs that are
hand-wrought and sold by the Rungus.

The tamu was regulated (and presumably taxed…) by the British, who
recognised the importance of this special gathering. Proclamations
and announcements were made during the tamu which each village held
at a particular day of the week, or of the month. It was, and is, a
most effective tool for distributing news to the distant interior,
and to receiving reports from those far outposts. I have many
friends, young and old, who only come to town once every month.
Their village is a two-day march from the next main road with bus
connection, and I have been invited to many a wedding to remote
areas, a cultural insight that I otherwise would have missed were it
not for the tamu. The people from those inaccessible interior areas
are still mostly self-sufficient rice farmers, and plant tobacco
which they sell on the market. Some are expert in traditional herbal
lore and collect tongkat ali (Sabah’s ‘natural Viagra’) and other
miraculous herbs which they take to the market. When they go back to
their village they bring with them salt, coffee and sugar, and other
commodities such as tooth-paste and soap to complement their
otherwise traditional and simple life-style.

While the Sunday tamu of Kota Belud and the Sunday tamu of Kota
Kinabalu at Gaya Street have long been the attention of visitors to
Sabah there are still some weekly markets virtually untouched by
mainstream tourists. Such insider tips are the effervescent
Thursday/Friday tamu of Donggongon, just outside Kota
Kinabalu; the simple but charming Sunday tamu of Kota Marudu and
Tuaran; and the grand tamu in Ranau, held every first day of each
month – they also have a Sunday tamu, but the monthly tamu is by far
more exuberant and interesting. The most interesting tamu in Sabah
are held on the west coast, but generally each town in Sabah has its
tamu and Sandakan has a particularly cheerful Sunday tamu. At these
markets you will find less souvenir handicraft, but an even more
authentic feel. Mingle with the locals, take your time and let
yourself be inspired by the age-old charm and timelessness of the
Sabah Tamu!